Stop Hitting Yourself!
by kaoslord1982
Summary: Season 5 Xander has a visitor who wants to help him with his little Glorificus problem.  His solution has a few drawbacks, however.
1. Prologue: Transformation

**Prologue: Transformation**

Anya was going over the day's receipts when Xander walked through the Magic Box's front door, jingling the shop bell. Behind him strode a figure in a featureless blue mask.

Willow looked up from the tome she'd been reading, but her welcoming smile at Xander faltered when she saw he had company. Anya frowned. Masked people tend to be bad news in Sunnydale. Not that businesses anywhere welcomed the arrival of people in masks. On any day but Halloween.

Xander looked a little stressed, but didn't act like he was afraid of the guy, so Anya decided not to go for the crossbow under the counter. Besides the weird mask the guy was wearing ordinary enough street clothes. A grey hooded sweatshirt (with the hood up), bluejeans, gloves and sneakers. He didn't have a single piece of exposed skin. Which made his clothes probably the only ordinary thing about him.

"Hey, Wil, Ahn. I was hoping you could help me out. Have you heard of something called the Binding of Bricks?" Xander asked in an overly casual tone.

"Styx," the masked man corrected him in an obviously distorted voice. It kind of reverberated without sounding threatening.

"Whatever. Anyway, have either of you guys heard of it?" Xander asked.

Anya exchanged confused looks with Willow.

"Yeah..."Anya finally replied. "It's a sort of oath binding spell that makes supernatural beings keep thier agreements. Kind like a contract in blood, only verbal." She immediately looked to the masked man, but it was impossible to read his reactions. Duh. _Masked_ man.

"Okay, could it be used to make someone tell the truth? Would it work for that?" Xander asked with his faux-casual tone beginning to slip.

This was smelling like a mystic bargain in the making to Anya.

"Yes, if the one being bound promised to be honest the spell would make 'em." Willow answered.

"Um, Xander, why are we talking about this in front of a strange person in a mask I've never seen before? I haven't seen the mask anyway. I can't tell if I've seen the person because of the mask which is probably the point, and I think I'll just stop talking now," Willow wound down.

"You can call me Walker," the masked figure offered. His mask was a featureless blue expanse with no visible eye holes. He should have drawn a smiley face on it or something. It was irritating looking at that blankness. Not that the view was the only irritating thing about this situation.

"Okay, what's going on here?" Anya demanded.

"The Texas Ranger here told me some things and I need to know if he was being straight with me. I don't suppose you could put that binding thing on him could you?" inquired Xander with his typical style.

"You don't cast the Binding of Styx on someone. They have to invoke it themselves. We could make sure he did it right I guess." Anya shook her head, setting that issue aside.

"What is this all about anyway? What did he tell you?"

"Yeah, I think it would be better to make sure he was being straight before going into detail," Xander evaded.

He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "So what do we need to get started?" He inquired brightly.

"I think you ladies likely have a copy of the ritual in your shop. May I borrow it for a moment?" Walker asked in what was barely recognizable as a polite tone over the distortion of his mask.

"This isn't a lending library," Anya replied with knee jerk mercenary reflex. "It's traditional for customers to pay for merchandise." The capitalist philosophy is the only correct one for a patriotic American after all.

"I think we can overlook that just this once, Ahn. If he tries to leave with the book, I promise to break his legs, okay?" Xander placated her.

She grudgingly produced the necessary tome. It was true that he wasn't likely to try to steal it. He seemed to have some other plan in the works and wouldn't leave without carrying it through. With reluctance she handed the book over to Walker.

He leafed through it for a few moments before finding the proper page. His gloved fingers never actually touched the text as he found his starting place.

"Alright. Here we are." As he began to read the Ancient Greek invocation a faint glow coalesced around him. When it was finished, he seemed to stand in a sourceless beam of sunlight. It shivered with expectation.

"I hereby swear by the River Styx that for the next hour I will speak only the truth," he intoned. At this the light that had gathered around him flowed down his body and disappeared with a startling suddenness.

" That was quick," Xander commented. She'd noticed he was pretty blase about magic, lately. "So did he do it right?"

"Yes, that's how it's supposed to look," Anya replied absently. "Hey, Walker, why did you set an hour time limit?"

"I'm not stupid enough to put myself under a long term truth spell. Haven't you seen that movie _Liar, Liar_?" he shot back.

"No. Is it any good?" she asked. She hadn't gotten to see it when it was in theaters.

"If you like Jim Carey you'd probably like that movie."

Good to know and guaranteed to be his honest opinion. But the on to more important questions.

"Who exactly are you?" she asked.

"You'll note that I didn't promise to answer any question you asked me. I only promised that everything I said would be the truth. That being so: Who I am isn't terrible relevant at the moment. Revealing that would only confuse you and lead to a bunch of other questions. I will say that I don't mean any harm to you, your friends, humanity in general, or this world." He let that statement hang for a moment before continuing.

"You now have less than fifty-nine minutes until the terms of my oath are met. I think Xander has some questions he wants to ask?" Walker prompted.

"Yeah. Where the things you told me earlier true?" Xander asked straight out.

"Everything I told you is true to the best of my knowledge. If I left anything out it was accidental. Do you have any other questions?" The care with which he was choosing his words made him sound like a lawyer. An evil robot lawyer with that weird voice. Not that she'd ever met an evil robot lawyer. Unless he was one. But she didn't think robots could use magic.

"How long would it take?" Xander asked.

"Three to six hours," the masked man answered without hesitation.

"Do you really think it would be enough?" Xander asked with an almost pleading edge.

"Absolutely." Walker answered.

"How soon could it be done?" Xander asked.

"At what point are you going to tell us what you two are talking about?" Anya demanded. This was looking like a deal closing moment to her and she wanted to be clear on the terms before Xander went and did something dumb. Or self-sacrificing. If there's even a difference between the two.

"Immediately, if that's what you want."

Xander let his gaze linger on Willow's face for a moment. Then he looked at Anya. He took a deep breath, visibly gathering his resolve, and nodded.

"Do it."

"Guys, what are you talking about?" Willow asked with concern bordering on fear.

"This is really going to hurt," Walker told Xander, ignoring the question. "Sorry."

Xander shrugged with resignation, "What else is new?"

With that the masked man drew out a squirming insectile looking thing from his pocket and tossed it into Xander's face. It clung for a moment and then flowed down his throat like living quicksilver.

He screamed wordlessly, clutching his head, before collapsing to the ground. His body convulsed a half dozen times and then went still. So did everyone else in the room. Anya found herself so shocked she couldn't speak.

"What did you do to him?" Willow demanded in a dangerously quiet voice. A voice seething with the implicit threat of death. If this guy didn't start making with the answers, Anya was willing to add in some _explicit_ threats of death.

"Nothing he didn't agree to," Walker answered. "He'll be back on his feet in three to six hours, just like I told him. He'll look a little different, but he'll still be the same Xander. In mind, heart, memory and soul anyway."

"In what way will he not be the same Xander?" Anya asked sharply. As a former wish granting demon she had a good ear for evasions and loopholes.

"Species. The Xander you knew was a human being. The new Xander will be a Demi-Fiend. A human with the body of a demon."

"You said he agreed to that? Why?" Anya asked again. She felt calmer about it than Willow seemed. Perhaps because she didn't regard demonic transformations with the same horror.

"You guys had no reasonable chance against Glory. And if you fail, its not just your world that will be destroyed. As a Demi-Fiend he will probably be able to stop her by himself. He decided that he was willing to live in a demonic body if that's what it took to save the world. To save multiple worlds," he corrected himself.

"Why Xander? Why couldn't it have been someone else?" Willow asked with a catch in her voice.

"Excellent question. If you had this bug thing that can save the world, why didn't you eat it yourself?" Anya demanded. Hopefully he had a reason beyond the obvious grossness of the action.

"There are a number of people who could have hosted a Magatama," he admitted. "I'm not one of them, and there are very few I would trust with the power of Masakadus. Of the available candidates, I felt he was the most appropriate choice. In part because I trust him."

"Then that bug thing you threw at him is a Magatama?" Anya asked, her nose wrinkling in distaste.

"The demonic symbiont, yes. There are twenty-four others that I know about. Each is different. The particular magatama I gave Xander is called Masukadus, the magatama of Ultimate Power. It's unique. He'll need to make a few preparations to reach his full strength. I told him all about that. He'll probably need a few days practice with his new abilities before he's ready to face Glory."

"Is there anyway to reverse this?" Willow asked desperately.

Walker answered with gentle firmness, "It can't be reversed by anything short of major divine intervention. Unless someone on the order of the Old Testament God steps in, what is done, is done. The only way to stop the process is to kill him now. He knew that too."

"Why did you do this? Who are you?" Anya asked curiously.

"I don't want Glory to destroy this world or any other. I don't want any of you to die. Also, I think Xander is going to have fun with his new body once he gets used to it. As for who I am: Not very important right now. Also confusing. I mean you all nothing but the best but I think I should go now." With that rapid, nearly incoherent speech, he drew out something small from his sleeve. He looked at it a moment and then disappeared in a rainbow colored blur.

_Well_, Anya thought while gazing at her soon-to-be ex-human boyfriend, _at least he isn't throwing up_. She didn't say it out loud though. There is such a thing as tact.


	2. Part 1: Preperations

**Part 1: Preparations**

Xander was woken up by something twitching at the back of his neck. Actually it was partly inside his neck. He realized what it had to be and spoke without opening his eyes or otherwise moving.

"That's really annoying."

"What's annoying?" a voice asked him immediately. Giles. He sounded a little cautious.

"The creepy bug thing is twitching. It's like it's got a nervous tick or something," Xander answered as he opened his eyes. He was lying on an emergency cot in the back training room of the Magic Box.

"You should have read the the owners manual before you let the guy in the mask sell you your new pet. Maybe it needs a vet. You probably need a psychiatrist, though, so it all works out," an angry female voice said with sarcastic brightness.

"Hey Buff. You sound pissed," he greeted her without turning to look.

"One of my friends has himself turned into a demon without so much as warning anyone. Why would I be pissed about that? It's perfectly reasonable, if you're some kind of lunatic."

Xander sighed. "If we're going to argue Is should probably be vertical." He suited action to words but felt something hanging off the back of his neck. He turned his head to shake it loose but it moved with him. He reached up and grabbed it, finding that it was a pillow. He winced at the sound of tearing fabric as he pulled it away from him.

"Oops. Sorry G-man. He mentioned there'd be a horn there, but I forgot. I'll get you a new one."

Giles gestured his unconcern with a nervous eloquence.

Xander was feeling idly at his new horn with his right hand when he noticed the markings on the back of his left.

"When he said they'd look like tattoos, I kind of expected pictures. Maybe writing. Abstract is good though. Ha, I guess it's really grown on me," he joked. No one laughed. Tough room.

"Hi, Xander. You don't feel connected to a force of all consuming evil fit to cover the earth in an inky cloak of misery and despair, do ya?" The chirpy cheerfulness of the tone was completely at odds with the question itself.

"Not really Wills, but thanks for asking. Actually what I mostly feel connected to is an empty stomach. I guess I need to find some demons."

"You want to eat demons?" Buffy interjected incredulously. "Are you mental?"

"Yes," he answered. He reviewed that in his head for a moment and then hurriedly clarified, "That's a 'yes' to the demon eating and a 'no' to the being psycho."

He shook his head, realizing that more clarification was in order. "And it's not a 'want to' thing. It's a 'need to' thing. It's not like I have to go all Hannibal Lector on them, either. It's some kind of funky energy thing," Xander explained.

"H-h-how exactly are you to consume this-this energy?" Giles aske with academic curiosity.

"I guess it's supposed to happen pretty much automatically when I kill a demon. He said it's possible to draw the energy without killing, but that it looked pretty nasty. I didn't ask him for a lot of details."

"What details did you ask for? What the hell did this guy tell you to make you think this was a good idea? What were you _thinking_?" Buffy demanded.

"What I was thinking was that Glory has handed you your shapely backside every time you've gone against her. I was thinking that if she isn't stopped then _'It's the End of the World as We Know It'_ is going to be our new national anthem."

"And he told you that eating a bug would make you a match for a Hell-Goddess?"

"The short answer is 'Yes'. The downsides to the deal are pretty obvious. I mean, hello, demon tapeworm. The upside though...Immunity to every form of attack except for a fairly rare kind of magic."

"The Devil Bug makes you invincible? Is that what you're saying? 'Cause it sounds like it just makes you really insane," Buffy said sceptically.

Xander smiled at that. "One quick way to find out." He rolled off the cot and onto his feet. Spreading his arms out from his body he said, "Take a shot. I'd rather try blunt force than electricity or fire first off."

"I'm not going to hit you," the Slayer said disgustedly.

"Come on, you know you want to," he encouraged.

Before he could hector Buffy any further, Anya picked up a heavy tome with both hands and slammed it into the side of his head with all the force she could muster.

Not only didn't his head rebound away from the blow, neither did the book. In seeming defiance of physical law, the book simply came to a halt, as if all it's kinetic energy disappeared.

"You didn't take much convincing, dear," he commented with a slightly nervous smile.

"Just because I'll not freaking out about the whole demon thing, doesn't mean we aren't going to talk later," she said with narrowed eyes. Changing the subject, she brightly commented, "I'd say there is something to the physical invulnerability you were talking about."

"Oooookay then. If it'll help everyone get it out of your systems, everyone take a free shot. Once my real defensive powers come in, I'll bounce most attacks right back at the source, so you'd better get your kicks in now."

* * *

><p>"Okay, can you please stop glowing?" Buffy whispered in a pained tone.<p>

"Well, excuse me for being happy!" Xander whispered back, mock insulted.

The two were trying to sneak into a suspected vamp nest in an abandoned warehouse. (There were always a few abandoned warehouses in Sunnydale. Businesses have a hard time staying solvent when their employees kept coming down with mysterious barbecue fork injures.) The key word was 'trying' to sneak. Xander's demonic body-markings glowed in the dark. He looked at his arms. The effect seemed both sinister and striking to him. What it wasn't was stealthy.

Buffy growled, less than amused at the quip.

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose, okay? I think it's automatic," he apologized.

"You think? Your buddy didn't mention it to you?" the Slayer hissed back at him.

"It probably slipped his mind. I mean, the built-in nightlight is no big compared to the other stuff..." He trailed off as he became aware of the four vampires who'd just entered the alley. He glanced at the other end of the alley. Make that eight vampires.

They looked either scornful or possibly were suffering from indigestion. It was hard to tell since they were wearing thier game-faces.

"Were you really trying to sneak up on us? You suck!" the lead vamp said. Scornful it was, then.

"I got to agree with the vamp on this one Xan. I've seen sneakier neon signs," Buffy said at a normal conversational volume, as she straightened up.

"I'm like one of those fish, what're they called, with the glowy dangly thing?"Xander tried to defend himself.

"An angler fish?" suggested one the vamps on the other end of the alley. They'd fanned out to block off any escape route, Xander noted.

"Exactly!" Xander nodded apprecitively at the vampire before turning back to Buffy. "I lured them in with the glow like an angler fish."

"Really? 'Cause it looked like you were just really bad at the whole stealth thing, from where I was standing," Buffy snarked at him. He could tell she was tracking the approaching vamps over his shoulder while seeming to be focused on their conversation.

"Well, to the untrained eye..." he began in a lofty tone.

"Seriously, you suck at sneaking around in the dark now. You look like an extra from _Tron_," she interrupted.

"It's not gonna be a problem for you after tonight," snarled one of the vampires as he threw a vicious looping punch at Xander, who ignored it in favor of drawing a stake. The vamp was momentarily shocked by the way his fist just stopped, leaving him completely open.

Poof. One down.

The next vamp tried some kind of jump kick. When it connected, his whole body just stopped in mid-air and dropped him neatly on his head. Xander knelt quickly before the blood sucker's yellow eyes had cleared.

Poof. Two down.

Lacing his hands together into a single bony club, vampire number three attempted to smash Xander's head open with an overhand blow. He put his whole body behind the strike, only to have it stop as soon as it touched the Demi-Fiend. Seeing the vamp's chest unguarded, Xander struck with his stake yet again.

Poof. Three down.

The last vamp on Xander's end of the alley looked like he was reconsidering the wisdom of getting out of bed that night. He turned to run.

"Sorry, not gonna happen," Xander said. With three running strides he caught up to the fleeing vampire. He grabbed him around the neck with his free hand and threw him against the bricks hard enough to break something. He staked him as he bounced.

Four down.

Xander turned to see how Buffy was doing, only to find her already finished and watching him. Make that eight down.

"So, now what?" she asked. "Did you...feed, or whatever?" Her voice betrayed her distaste for the subject.

"I don't... think so..." he trailed off hesitantly. He wasn't sure what feeding would feel like, but he would think it would be noticeable. He suddenly noticed movement from the dust of the fallen vampires.

He quickly looked back at the Slayer. "From the look on your face I take it you aren't seeing little glowing things swimming through what's left of the vamps?"

"Ah, that's a 'no,'" she answered with half a smile. "What do they look like?"

"Way too much like the sperm from those Sex Ed videos for me to be comfortable. Especially since I think I'm supposed to eat them," he admitted.

She burst out laughing.

Right about then he felt Junior star wiggling again. His body felt kind of like he was taking a deep breath, only without the breathing part. He was pulling, gently, in every direction at once. At the same time, he saw the little wiggling things start to move toward him. Xander concentrated on the pulling sensation and they started moving faster.

In seconds the red glowing things were swarming around him, moving together like a school of fish. He smiled a little, remembering his BS about angler fish eariler. A pleasent shock went through him as his new body absorbed the little things.

Buffy broke of her giggling to say, "Hey, you glowed brighter there. Have you been fertilized?"

"Ha, ha, ha," he responded dryly. "You're not going to let that go anytime soon, are you?"

"Nope," she smirkingly agreed. "So, did you get what you came for?"

"Yes I did," he confirmed. He mock-complained under his breath, "I just had to give an honest description. It's not like anyone else can see them..."

If Buffy was laughing at him, she wasn't freaking out over him being part demon. Emphasising the absurd was central in his plan to get her comfortable around him again. His dignity was going to have to take a few hits to get him back on her good side.

_So what else is new?_


	3. Part 2: Execution

**Part 2: Execution**

This is where it all pays off, Xander thought. Two weeks of slaughtering every vamp or demon he could find. Every night. And then going to work the next morning.

He was kind of surprised to keep his job. Facial tattoos aren't popular with most employers and coming in tired every day didn't help. His new demonic strength and endurance saved him, along with the Sunnydale custom of not asking awkward questions.

Still, he could probably kiss that promotion goodbye.

It was on those nightly search and destroy missions that they'd finally found where Glory was holed up. The swanky atmosphere wasn't a real surprise, given how fond of herself she was.

Actually, he'd run into her personally. He'd been by himself at that point, taking out a demon nest. Coincidentally it was a nest that she'd recruited. Conscripted. Whatever. He wasn't ready to fight her at the time, but his magatama had done something when she grabbed it. It looked like it actually hurt her hand and he didn't stick around to see how badly. Fortunately she didn't chase him.

Meeting her, however briefly, was memorable. He learned the feel of her power and was able to recognize when he was near her. That made tracking her down easy. Not smart perhaps, but easy.

He wasn't sure what it was about her, but she really creeped him out. It wasn't her looks, or even how crazy she was. Drusilla made her look like Ms. Sanity. Maybe it was his freaky demon powers kicking in, because even standing outside her building he could feel how strong she was. Stronger than anything they'd ever gone up against. Maybe stronger than everything they'd ever gone up against combined.

_My that's a lovely front door_, he thought to himself. _I should stay out here and admire it for a while._

He tried the doorknob. It was open so he let himself in.

_After all, if Glory does manage to kill me I won't have to have that little talk Anya's been threatening. _He took it as a seriously bad sign that she still wasn't ready to broach whatever it was. Somehow he doubted it was going to be good news. _It's always the Sword of Damocles that hangs over my head, never the Pinata of Super-Happy-Funtimes._

As he walked down the lushly carpeted floors and looked at the richly furnished rooms he wondered to himself, _Could this be anymore soulless? _It was a classic McMansion, if that wasn't a contradiction in terms. A shrine to wealth without personality.

_And it's much nicer than my place._

He made his way up the stairs and headed towards the strongest power he could sense. She turned out to be reclining in a chaise lounge chewing out her cringing lackeys for their incompetence.

He strode into the room like he owned the building and rented it because it was downwind of a stockyard. There was no need for subtlety here.

_Pretend she's Cordelia and go for the throat._

"Nice dress. Not many girls go for the crack-ho look but it really suits you."

Her scruffy brown clad followers started visibly and took semi-competent defensive stances. Glorificus looked completely unfazed.

"Oh, it's the stripy kid. Shouldn't you be running away?" she asked with a condescending smirk, but he could see her eyes narrow with anger as she registered the insult.

"Sorry about that. I had to eat and run, you know how it is. Busy, busy," he grinned. "I've got some time to talk now. How's your hand?"

She glanced down, flexing the hand in question. "What was that anyway? That actually stung, you little worm."

"That'll teach you not to go grabbing a fella's horn uninvited. And trust me, a girl with your looks and personality problems isn't going to be getting any invitations. I mean seriously, do these hobbit rejects have to dress you every morning? You probably nee them to tell you which foot is which anyway." With the air of someone who had made a realization he continued,"Hey, so that's why you always wear heels! You couldn't figure out how to tie shoelaces, could you?"

He watched her face alternately darken and blanch as he continued to talk. _She likes to pretend to be in control, but she has about as much self discipline as a five year old_, he thought dispassionately.

He didn't even see her get up. She was so fast she wasn't even a blur as she punched him in the gut with enough force to dent a vault door.

_I didn't know she was that fast._

He was probably the only one in the room to spot the flicker of force that surrounded him at the instant of impact, but the results of that flicker were patently obvious to everyone. Glory went flying backwards, scattering her robed minions like humanoid bowling pins. Xander was completely untouched.

Glory pulled herself out the drywall with an offended look on her face. "I am a divine being, you pitiful meatsack! I demand respect!"

"Told you to keep your hands to yourself." Xander shook his head in mock dismay. "Damn, and I thought Cordy was the most self-involved person I'd ever meet. The world doesn't revolve around you, you know? Although as fat as your ass is I suppose it's an easy to see why you'd make that mistake."

Her response to that was a backhanded slap that would have taken a human's head off and splattered it in a sixty foot arc. The flicker of his automatic defense threw her through a wall and into a large free standing bath tub. With an aggrieved shriek she smashed it into shards and sprang back to her feet.

"You. Are. Pond. Scum." she said with quiet fury.

"And yet you seem to be losing this fight," he pointed out. "To pond scum. Really, what does that say about you? You call yourself a god? Make with the smiting already!"

He regretted his choice of words almost as soon as he spoke them, because they made her start to think instead of just react. She circled around him slowly rather than launching another counterproductive assault.

"You haven't touched me," she said as her eyes widened in realization. "You've got some kind of spell to reflect my power back at me."

_Can't let up. Gotta keep her playing my game._

"You just figured that out? And here I thought you were hitting yourself on purpose, trying to fix that ugly face."

The recoil from her savage blow drove her through two walls and out of the house entirely. She landed in the ornamental fountain in the back. Xander followed her with quick strides, covering the thirty feet from the hole in the outer wall to the fountain in a single effortless leap.

"What did I just say?" He shook his head at her in mocking reproof. In a childish sing-song he told her, "Stop hitting yourself!"

"You revolting little maggot!" she shrieked at him. "That spell can't last forever and once it wears off I'm going to hang your striped hide one my wall, you glow-in-the-dark zebra! No one trick pony is going to make a fool out of me! Minions!"

At her call the scrofulous little creatures hurried to present themselves before where she sprawled, soaking wet, half embedded in the masonry of the fountain. There were about a dozen of them still able to walk at that point.

"Oh Splendiferous One, how may we serve you?" One of them asked obsequiously.

"Attack him! I don't need you to kill him, just let me know when his defensive spell goes down."

"As you command Your Supreme Scrumptiousness."

The little idiots were actually dumb enough to draw weapons. Xander stood and let a few attack him, but after seeing one inadvertently disembowel himself, he decided to go to phase two of his plan. That was just sad. Not to mention gross.

"You called me a one trick pony? As with so many other things, getting that dye job for instance, you were mistaken. Here's my second trick: Radiance!"

Xander, using the knowledge his magatama had imparted in him, channeled the power within himself down his arm. When it reached his palm he released it. He'd done this before, but still had a feeing of unreality as he watched it bloom into a sphere of incandescent light that was far brighter and somehow purer than the sun.

The light seared the minions into ashes with a thoroughness he'd previously associated with vampires. The Hell-Goddess herself was left with what looked like the world's most terrible sunburn. She'd shielded her eyes with her arms, and the pink flesh around them looked like a mask against the blackened skin on the rest of her body.

"Ah, alone at last. What would you like to do now? Since you've had your bath and dried off, would you like me to show you how to use deodorant?"

He hadn't really expected his Radiance attack to have finished her. He had to keep her enraged, keep her attacking him, because if she ran he'd never be able to catch her. It might solve their world ending problem if she ran off to heal and missed her window of opportunity, but it wouldn't prevent her from coming back and killing everyone he'd ever met in revenge afterwards.

With a mindless scream she sprang at him, knitting her fists together in an over hand blow with her full strength behind it. The reflected force embedded her semi-conscious body six feet under the decorative cobblestones.

She looked kind of pitiful there, burned and beaten.

He reminded himself of all the people she'd killed. All the people she'd driven insane. He reminded himself that she was going to end the world and sacrifice Buffy's little sister to do it.

His sympathy faded. She'd brought this on herself. Literally. If she wasn't evil this wouldn't have been necessary. If she wasn't seriously insane it wouldn't have been possible.

"My last trick: Megidolaon."

Once again he channeled power down his arm, but in a slightly different fashion. He knew this really was his last trick. It would exhaust him and if it failed he wouldn't be able to try again. He swung his arm to point down into the hole at Glory and released the power.

The luminous hemisphere of white light that swelled around her didn't have the same overwhelming brightness of his earlier trick, but it's intensity was palpable. Suddenly the hemisphere began to expand and contract in a stuttering fashion. He distantly thought Glory looked like she'd gotten bigger but it was hard to tell in that wavering light.

It became a moot question when the dome collapsed in on itself with a thunderclap of sound and a shockwave that knocked him down. Not to mention a blinding flash that coincided with a stinging pain.

When his dazzled eyes cleared he saw the welt on his arm where a flare from Megidolaon had touched him. _Okay, note to self: Do not stand on top of the target when using the only type of magic that can still hurt you. Dummy._

He got to his feet and looked into the hole. The irregular crater formed by her strike was now a perfectly round hole. Lying at the bottom was a jet black vaguely humanoid figure that crumbled into dust even as he watched.

He tensed as he saw something moving in the dust. He'd expected an enormous amount of the wiggling lights. What came to the surface was...a magatama. There was no mistaking that slender body, those whipping legs, or those big nasty mandibles.

Xander blinked, feeling kind of like Oz as he said,"Well. Huh."


End file.
